Psst…TobyMac wins seventh Grammy award

Former DC Talker, TobyMac went home with his seventh Grammy last night, but you wouldn’t it from watching the live 3.5 long telecast on CBS. In what has been touted as “music’s biggest night” the “58th Annual Grammy Awards” only aired eight of the 83 awards given this year.

This year’s win for Best Contemporary Christian Music Album is the TobyMac’s seventh career Grammy. His other awards were for 2013’s “Eye on It,” 2009’s “Alive and Transported” and four more from his day with DC Talk. In addition, “This is Not a Test” got a lot of love this past year from ESPN Music, FOX & Friends, HLN’s “Weekend Express,” ABC Radio, Billboard, FOX News, Patheos and others, so this award is a pretty big deal or at least should be.

While in years past the Grammys had been accused of being too award-heavy, but now the special is just the opposite. At least in past years, all music genres were represented with at least one award given to each. If you’re old enough, you remember seeing performances by Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith. But this isn’t a rant that the Grammy’s should be more “Christian.” It is a rant that the award show should celebrate all music genres that the organization actually gives awards to. The awards show focuses primarily on well-known artists instead of sharing the new talent who have just arrived or talented artists who have been around for years, but nobody knows who they are.

Marc Snetiker of “Entertainment Weekly” said in his review of the TV special, “As a cohesive awards show, the Grammys didn’t flow—how could they? The telecast opted to only show a troubling eight awards in the three-and-a-half-hour runtime, thereby essentially declaring that the honors themselves are mere second fiddle to the performances. On that front, flow was never achievable as producers did their best to check the pulse of genres rather than dissect them.”

Other Christian entertainers worth celebrating their awards include:

Kirk Franklin who won Best Gospel Performance/Song for “Wanna Be Happy?”

Francesca Battistelli who won Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song (who beat out TobyMac’s “Feel It”) for “Holy Spirit.”

Israel & NewBreed who won Best Gospel Album for “Covered: Alive in Asia”

The Fairfield Four who won Best Roots Gospel Album for “Still Rockin’ My Soul”

At least the Grammy show remembered to honor the following:

Record of the Year: Uptown Funk / Mark Ronson Featuring Bruno Mars

Album of the Year: 1989 / Taylor Swift

Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance: Thinking Out Loud / Ed Sheeran